As a new travel warning by the U.S. State Department (http://travel.state.gov) points out, the areas of concern are not the beach resorts or historical cities most Americans visit, but rather the border towns, specifically Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Matamoros.
Too often in the past, these types of government alerts have taken a broad-brush approach, simply advising against travel to a country as a whole. What's different about this warning, issued March 14 following the shooting in Ciudad Juarez of three people with ties to the American consulate, is its level of detail, and the way it rightly targets only towns where drug-related violence has been rampant.
This could have something to do with the fact that Mexico's tourism economy is fragile, and the U.S. government doesn't want to do anything that might damage it, but let's hope it also has something to do with a new, more responsible approach to travel warnings in general.
As the State Department points out, millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year, and this isn't likely to change. Nearly a million Americans live in various parts of the country, enjoying the benefits of an inexpensive retirement and low-cost medical care.
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